Simplify your Creative Lesson Planning

Do you find your teaching ideas come from EVERYWHERE? Instagram, blogs, podcasts, radio shows, trips to the grocery store? I hear you.

It can be hard to keep track of all the great ideas. Pretty soon you’ve got sticky notes everywhere, text messages to yourself, a desktop folder full of Facebook screenshots, saved posts a mile long on social media, and of course, that mental to-do list that fires up at 11 pm on Sunday nights when you’re trying to go to sleep!

It was with all this in mind that I created The Ed Deck this year. I wanted to find a way to keep creative ideas for class front and center during lesson planning. Because wouldn’t it be nice to have all the wonderful concepts you’ve discovered in your career right beside you as you plan out a unit or just a single class for the next day? That way you don’t end up losing sight of your innovative ideas and falling back on your standard choices.

The Ed Deck makes it easy to keep beautiful ideas beautifully present. It’s a set of lesson planning idea cards, made to be enjoyed. They look like this:

I’ve made you an editable blank set you can use free to create your own deck, and I’ve made a deck that you can buy over on TPT. I’m pretty excited about both.

Let’s talk about how you can use them in a heap of wonderful ways (and don’t worry, I’m going to tell you how to grab the free editable cards at the end!).

Keep your Ed Deck Handy for Lesson Planning

When it comes to planning, keeping your Ed deck in your top drawer, on a ring on your desk, or on a bulletin board in your office will really help. If you’re like me, you just can’t think of all the things you’ve been meaning to do when it’s late at night and you’re trying to figure out how to cover chapter three of Huck Finn in an engaging way. Or when it’s seven a.m. on Monday and your brain says “Let’s make a creative plan for the week!” and your body says “uuuuuurrrrrrghhhhhh.”

Having your lesson cards around will remind you that you just read about a great idea for a PBL unit, want to listen to more relevant podcasts with your students, or were hoping to create a Netflix-inspired final project sometime. Or that you’ve had success with silent discussions and Harkness, and you want to remember to use them more. You get the idea.

Use your Ed Deck to bring Inspiration to your Faculty

Make a colorful splash in your faculty room or department office when you put up an Ed Deck bulletin board late some afternoon when no one is around. Join in on the conversation as people begin to imagine how they could use the ideas they see in their classrooms. Or make your colleagues laugh by framing the mirrors of the faculty bathrooms in cards to help inspire new directions. Share Ed Deck cards with new faculty, student teachers, or your neighbor across the hall.

Create a Collaborative Ed Deck with your Teaching Team or Department

Join with your ninth grade team, your A.P. team, or your whole English department and discuss the strategies you’d each like to bring to the table in the upcoming months. Maybe one team member’s excited about hyperdocs, another about podcasting with students, another about blackout poetry and book talks. Let everyone make a card or two and then print sets for everyone. As you all use your cards to inspire your lesson planning, you’ll be more likely to try each other’s strategies and build more professional community and conversation around the new strategies.

I’d love to see how you use these editable cards! Snap a photo of the set you create and tag me when you post it to Insta (@nowsparkcreativity) so I can come and cheer.